Raph smiled as he bent over Kiz, who began to gasp aloud more words in his home-world dialect. Wanting to hear more, Raph surprised a closed-eyed Kiz by inching down his body and grasping a hold of Kiz’s cock.
“Ngh!” Kiz cried, sounding as if he were trying to contain his joy. Raph shook his head, then decided to take things up a notch.
Chapter Seven
Swiping his tongue over the mushroom head of Kiz’s cock, Raph lapped the pool of precum that beaded at the tip. Raph hummed his appreciation before sucking in the first inch or so. Raph bobbed his head, encouraged when Kiz began to mewl and thrash his head and limbs around wildly.
“Raphael!” Kiz cried. “I-I gonna—”
Swirling his tongue, Raph reached up a hand and began to jack Kiz’s dick in short pulls around the base of his shaft.
“Ahhhhhh!” Kiz cried, sounding husky with approval.
A second later, a hot, salty wad of Kiz’s seed shot into his mouth. After the first initial shock, he pulled back, choking slightly as he spit out the cum. Locking eyes with a blissed Kiz, who still jerked slightly, he became awed at the sight of the other-worlder savoring his orgasm. Raph helped Kiz through the after-spasms by running his thumb around the head of Kiz’s manhood.
“That—” Kiz began, sitting up with a crazed look in his eyes. “Amazing!”
Raph chuckled openly as he prowled up the mattress, lying on the plush surface next to Kiz. He ignored his own turgid erection in favor of saying, “Tell me about you.”
Kiz laughed, his hand smothering it. “I tell truth. No thing in my history funny.”
He pursed his lips. “At least tell me what you were like when you were little.”
“Ha!” he burst out, smothering the sound with his hand. “Like I be now, guess.”
Raph stared at Kiz as he said in a rush, “Why do you hide?”
Kiz’s body turned to steel beside him, but now that the question was out, he couldn’t—or maybe wouldn’t—take it back. He needed to know so he could help Kiz.
After an awkward moment of silence, Raph recoiled in surprise when Kiz said almost in a whisper, “I no sure. I think ‘cause I never belong anywhere… A-and I no wish, um, to no offend any person.”
Raph turned into Kiz, tossing a comforting arm around the male’s torso. “Those are very common feelings.”
“Yeah?” Kiz said, curling into him. The action made Raph preen. A male as big as Kiz curving into him for warmth made Raph feel like a caveman. Yet he wouldn’t trade the archaic man protecting his lover feeling radiating from his chest. In Raph’s opinion, submission was hot. It was so enticing that he felt a blue flame twist his insides with pride.
Raph’s brain warned to keep his feelings of lust and fondness separate. Having only ever had one-night stands, Raph couldn’t tell if the desperate yearning in his soul was fondness or—or extreme like into love territory. It’s too soon for that.
He knew he had to separate sex and his growing interest in the male.
Now, for some reason, making Kiz’s body reach climax was worth anything carnal he’d had with his previous lovers. Raph couldn’t imagine sex with Kiz being any better than what he was feeling at that moment. Just an arm draped over Kiz’s smooth stomach made his feel at peace.
Sinking into the bed beside Kiz, Raph’s attention was drawn back to what they were discussing. “Bleding in is, um…” Kiz slapped his forehead. “I mean ‘blending.’ Blending is natural to me.” Kiz sighed deeply. “I no talk much to others. I-I been that way the whole time… My only friend…my brother.”
Stroking Kiz’s hair, Raph asked, wanting to know everything he could about Kiz, “You’re free to leave the bar now. What do you want to do with your life?”
Kiz sighed. “Now I like to bond.”
Raph’s chest seized as he held back a curse. “I think you’d regret it.”
“I think I regret to not do more.”
“I could talk to someone.” Raph gulped. “I could make it so you can pick your mate instead of letting fate decide.”
When he didn’t reply, Raph pulled the bigger guy tighter against him. He knew it would be for the best. Raph wasn’t under the delusion he was the best thing to walk the Earth. He had his faults. They were big and nailed into his brain with railroad spikes. He’d always have to live with them, and he didn’t want to subject Kiz to the same shitty existence he lived.
Raph spent most of his time in a room filled with other creatures arguing over how to govern the realms. Out of court, he went through piles of paperwork and bailed Kippy’s sour ass out of trouble. It seemed like every time Kippy opened his mouth he pissed someone off. Plus, his proclivity for seducing men in relationships didn’t do him justice either.
The council and Kippy took his whole attention. Raph was man enough to admit he wasn’t fond of either. The council looked down on him because he was once an “angel” and had gotten kicked out of the “family.” If he was bold enough to go against his own kind, they figured he had no respect when it came to upholding the authority of everything the council stood for.
Not that Raph particularly cared what the others thought. He’d never held to close to judgmental, asinine threats. That’s why he guessed he and Kippy worked so well together. Kippy was like rain drops that hit his face. Raph could just reach up and wipe the water away—but then just as quick, the drops would be back and the cycle would continue. But every so often, Kippy would hit on a topic that Raph couldn’t hold his tongue about. Now the little shit had somehow gotten it in his head that his purpose was to make Raph’s life a living hell. So far, Kip had been doing a bang-up job.
Thinking things through, Raph knew it would boil down to work, Kippy, and Kiz. Granted he’d only known Kiz a little over twenty-four hours, but slowly Kiz was hacking his way into Raph’s fortress surrounding his sanity. He was so torn inside. In a matter of minutes, he was trying to separate his minor infatuation from lust. Now he knew he was somewhere in the middle. And he didn’t think that was a bad place to be.
Chapter Eight
Raph knew in his heart that if Kiz left him he wouldn’t be able to handle the rejection. In his life he’d watched his siblings fall from grace and had to observe from Elysium as they suffered and died painful deaths, forbidden to intervene.
Then when he’d taken a chance, his life had been flipped as he’d gotten his ass thrown in the pit.
He wanted Kiz to have a life. Not subject him to ill treatment by those who saw Raph as beneath them. His association with Kiz would damn him to the same fate. His sudden fear of hurting Kiz—emotionally and physically—made his bones lock, becoming unmovable.
“Do you n—o wanna mate with me, Raphael?” Kiz asked, jolting Raph back to the conversation. Kiz seemed to think hard before he questioned softly, “It ‘cause I no get pregnant?”
Jerking away, Raph looked down at Kiz, a lot confused. “Huh?”
All mate good for is make babies. I no even give him that. I kill self. I—
“Whoa!” Raph said, interrupting Kiz’s inner thoughts. “I don’t give a shit about babies, Kiz. Now if you think one more time about killing yourself, I’m going to chain you to the bed until you change your mind. Okay?”
“On Tibu, mate are good only—”
“You are not on Tibu, Kiz,” Raph said angrily. “We do things differently here on Earth. Number one thing is, matings are not done to further the species. They are done for friendship.”
“But Koro say babies are—”
“Stop,” Raph interrupted. “I don’t even know why we’re talking about this. I can’t procreate anyway.”
“B-but—”
Raph shushed the other-worlder. “I can’t procreate. I’m from an earlier group. I’m an ‘L’ model.”
“‘L’ model?”
Raph sighed. “The angel hierarchy is more complex than what you’ll hear about on the street. I’m not going to explain it.”
Kiz pulled away from him, slid off the bed, and
walked to stand before the door leading into the hall. “You right.” Kiz’s voice came out raspy. “Get out.”
“What?” Raph jerked to a sitting position. He hadn’t meant to shout. The word just popped out without thought.
Suddenly, a mental block formed, keeping Raph out of Kiz’s head. He groaned inwardly, and his anger soared. He hated having to inquire aloud to get info he could pluck out of a brain in seconds. If only I had possession of my normal abilities…
Not knowing what had set Kiz off, he wondered aloud, “What do you want? I won’t bore you with stories of my people if you wish me not to. Just let me stay.”
Kiz spun around and said harshly in a clipped tone, “It ‘cause I dumb? That why you no explain your angel things to me? I not get you, Raphael. I not know what to say so you want me. I guess it ‘cause you think I’z too stupid to understand.”
“Kiz, you’re confusing me,” he said, running his hand through his hair. “I don’t think you’re stupid.”
“Then why you no teach me?”
“I will,” he said, still unsure. Was Kiz feigning interest? He has to be. “What do you want me to explain?”
“The ‘L’ thing. I no hear it ‘fore.”
Raph scratched his head. His cock was still achingly erect, but he brushed his sexual desires aside in order to make sure Kiz wouldn’t try and kick him out again. “Well, first, the word ‘angel’ is not a species. It’s a rank. Angel translates to ‘messenger.’ Lowest of the low. Even below cupids.
“They went back and forth from realm to realm to deliver news to those in the Elysium Realm. But I’ll tell you, this practice is no longer in use. All angelic beings that haven’t fallen can now go from any realm back to the Elysium. But to leave you must get a permit and have a portal master send you where you want to go.”
“Then—” Kiz cut off, sounding unsure. “If you no angel—or messenger—what you be?”
Kiz’s question was innocent, and so hard to answer in English. Especially in a way that the other-worlder would understand.
“When I first came into existence, I was a curatrix. They are very different than angels.”
“So…you curatrix?” Kiz said with a small smile that made Raphael’s pent-up shoulders loosen. Kiz, so big in size, resembled a frightened child from across the room. His head was bent, his eyes on the floor, his hair slightly smooshed from their “play” time.
Raph watched Kiz shift nervously from foot to foot, one hand clutching his opposite forearm while the other curved protectively over his flat, hairless stomach. In fact, he appeared to only have hair on his head.
Raph had to hold in his growl as he shoved off the bed. Walking over to Kiz, he couldn’t hold back from taking the guy into his arms. Kiz bent his head down complacently to rest it in the crook of Raph’s neck.
Sighing, it took Kiz’s words a moment to register. Curatrix? Me? “No.” He breathed in Kiz’s spicy scent. “Not anymore.”
“Tell me,” the large male prompted, surprising Raph when he pressed his lips to Raph’s neck. He knew if Kiz had asked for his bank account number, he’d give it freely.
Raph was lost. Kiz may have some knowledge of what he was doing, but the man couldn’t even fathom the danger he was in if Raph’s restraint didn’t hold.
Shaking himself mentally, he once again had to backtrack in his head to remember what they’d been talking about. Ah! Yes!
“Curatrix was my first rank. The curatrixae were—” He had to stop and think of an easy way to say that Kiz would understand. “—well, it translates to guardian. They protected Earth before shadow assassins.” In his head he added, They took over after the “R” model was considered obsolete. But he didn’t say it aloud. He was already throwing enough info at the male.
Goosebumps flared when Kiz gently scraped his teeth against Raph’s flesh. Always having been the aggressor, Raph marveled he didn’t attack to have control.
“Tell more,” Kiz groaned, hugging Raph tighter.
Thinking about where he’d left off, he said, “The curatrixae are nearing extinction. When one falls and manages to keep at least one wing, they are the ones that become demon crossroad brokers. The curatirxae powers were meant to aid and protect humans. Now when they fall they extort the humans that they once protected for financial gain.”
Raph gripped Kiz hard, feeling his fury surge. “That’s why I can’t stand my fallen brothers and sisters. Curatirxae like Othiah have taken their gift and sell it off to the highest bidder when they should be helping those in need.”
“Who Othiah?” Kiz mumbled into his neck.
Easing his grip, he said, “Sorry. I guess you know him as Otho. He was once a curatrixae. He’s a part of the ‘A-H’ model.”
Kiz pulled back to lock eyes with Raph. Raph then felt his body float when Kiz began to twirl his finger around a strand of Raph’s hair on the base of his neck. “You say you was ‘L.’ What the difference be?”
He hummed, wanting to cease talking and continue groping the other-worlder. “Everyone in Elysium is categorized by their name. There are the names that end with the ‘el’ sound like mine and names that end with the ‘ah’ sound like Othiah’s. The ‘els’ are the first generation curatrixae while the ‘ahs’ are the second generation. I’m basically an outdated model.”
“You make sound like you’s a cell phone.”
“I am a cell phone,” Raph said, thinking about it. “I was created to serve humans. To aid them. I serve no purpose other than to make them happy and their lives easier.”
“Why there so few curatrixae left?” Kiz asked quietly. “Falling Skies?”
Startled by his mate, Raph wondered how Kiz knew about the Elysium civil war. It had started with Lucifer—the “R” vindex model, or “avenger”—being tossed into the pit after he refused to stop sneaking to Earth to be with the “forbidden fruit,” Eve. Raph found it amusing how humans had flipped the truth.
The last Raph had heard, his older brother and Eve had a couple dozen sons and a kingdom-monopoly in the Abyss Realm. They’d self-proclaimed themselves king and queen.
Raph had also heard they had their own brand of apple sauce. Though that might have been a poor joke. Tinnel, one of the current Archangels, was an ass—and didn’t have a funny bone in his body. Tinnel cared for the purity of the angelic race and kept the remaining “pure breeders” locked in Elysium, forbidden to leave.
“Yes. A good chunk of curatrixae had fallen then,” Raph said with a frown, his thoughts returning to Falling Skies. “I didn’t fall till after the civil war. But I stood by the Caelum council’s decision to let those who wished to go to Earth go in peace without being shoved. And like I said, it just sickens me that many of them began to use their gifts to benefit themselves after the mass exodus.”
Kiz jerked away, looking horrified. “You shove ‘em? With hand?”
“Well, there’s more than one way to expel an Elysium-born entity,” Raph said, not knowing why Kiz was freaked out. “But yeah. Gabriel and I had to make actual contact with our hands on their flesh for some reason. It opens a portal to the abyss. It’s more humane. The old way was to kick them. But if you do it that way, a portal doesn’t open. Getting kicked, your wings disintegrate into nothing in the fall…
“I’ve heard losing your wings this way is more painful than the actual crash to the Earth’s surface.”
“They die in fall?”
Thinking about it, he said, “When your wings burn, it creates a cocoon around you to cushion the fall.”
In a small voice, Kiz asked, “Were yous kicks or shove?”
Was I kicked or shoved? “I was shoved.”
Kiz’s body sagged as he released a heavy sigh. In Kiz’s head, Raph heard, Thank goodness. Raph melted into Kiz, his heart thudding quicker and quicker the more he spent with the guy.
“So…” Kiz began. “You still no tell what you are.”
And if it mean we no able to bond. The thought floated from Kiz’s head int
o Raph’s, making everything clear in a second. Kiz didn’t care that Raph was a traitor. He just wanted to know if it was possible for them to bond and be true viscers.
Raph sighed and said, “If you’d just asked that, we could have kept this history lesson a lot shorter.”
“What?” Kiz asked, looking perplexed.
Breathing deeply, he felt his heart clench as he hugged Kiz. “I am no longer a member of Elysium. But I choose to call myself a Fallen Archangel. I can bond in the way every other realm creature can except for the fact that if I chose to mate with a female, I would never be able to get her pregnant. Only newer angels can procreate. In fact, newer gen angelic males can get pregnant as well.”
Kiz laughed. “You lie! Otho can make baby in his belly?”
“It’s more complicated than that, but yeah. In fact, he has a kid. His name is Haven.”
Kiz looked at him like he didn’t believe it. “But they say Otho, um—” He motioned with his arms till the word came to him. “—adopted him!”
Raph sighed. “Because of my Archangel rank, and that I managed to keep both of my wings while Othiah only managed to keep one, my powers are vastly stronger than my brother’s.” He felt a pain in his chest, admitting to Kiz, knowing the male would keep what he was about to say secret. “Othiah was raped by a scumbag necromancer.”
Then sweet, innocent Kiz asked, “What that mean?”
Not beating around the bush, he said bluntly, “I take it you know what sex is, yeah?” He felt Kiz’s body flush hot next to him. “Rape is forcing someone to have sex when you’ve said no.”
Kiz gasped. “No, no, no,” he said over and over in a shushed tone. “Poor Otho.”
“Yeah.” Raph sighed. “He tells everyone he adopted my nephew because he fears Dominic will come back and take Haven and hurt him—never mind the fact no one knows where the guy is. Even I can’t track the necromancer.”
Bloodfire Awakening Page 7
